Back in the spring Pirates manager Clint Hurdle brazenly declared his team would win 95 games in 2013, and pretty much the entire world laughed. Including myself. In my multi-part MLB preview that used payroll and finances to predict the outcomes of the 2013 season my math pegged the Pirates as a 74 win team.

It requires a type of athleticism that most other sports simply do not: Balance, power, speed, agility, endurance and hand-eye coordination. All sports require some of these, but not too many require all of them. Football and basketball have similar athleticism requirements, but neither of those sports is played on ice skates. Continue Reading

The AFC south was a one car race for over a decade. For 10 years the Indianapolis Colts dominated the division in record breaking fashion, posting more wins and division titles than any other team in NFL history over a ten year time period. Even more than their nemesis from the East, the Patriots. It was more lopsided than Tony Stewart on the Indianapolis speedway racing against a few dozen Asian women in Volkswagens.

The Jaguars were kinda-sorta good for a few years, if you consider good as getting into the playoffs as a wildcard team twice in the last 13 seasons. The Tennessee Titans won a Division title in the middle of the Colts epic run and then disappeared into anonymity faster than the 5th Kardashian sister. Both teams were little more than a temporary nuisance to the Colts. Neither team sustained any momentum and went back to being Indy’s doormat.

Then 2011 happened. Manning’s neck turned into a bent slinky and suddenly the Colts went into the wall in turn three. They finished the race only because the league forced them to actually play all 16 games. Someone had to take over the division, and the Houston Texans decided it was as good a time as any to start being competitive after 10 years in existence.

But the Colts went to the pits, drafted Andrew Luck, and got right back into the race.

2013 like any other year in the AFC south since it’s inception: there is one very good team, a borderline playoff team and two of the worst teams in the entire NFL. Barring some unexpected bad luck the results of this year’s race should surprise no one. Continue reading →

Unless you live in Ohio, you might want to go read about baseball, maybe hockey, anything other than NFL football. Chances are you are probably not going to like what follows, unless of course you have a accurate grasp on reality. If you do then nothing that follows should shock or surprise you.

It’s a strange time in the AFC East. For the last 12 years any discussion about the East began and ended with the New England Patriots. Since 2001 they have won the division 10 out of 12 times and averaged 12 wins a season. No other AFC East team has averaged a winning record during that time. In fact, since 2001, the entire rest of the division has combined for only one more playoff win (6) than the Patriots have Super Bowl appearances (5). Think about that.

But the winds have shifted. The Patriots no longer have the look or feel of a menacing juggernaut. Even before Aaron Hernandez decided to re-enact Scarface in a Boston suburb the intimidation of Camelot had begun to wane. Quite simply, the Patriots are no longer The Patriots.

The saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Well it didn’t fall apart in a day, either. And while the Patriots are not what they once were, they are still the best team in this division, for now. As long as they have Tom Brady and everyone else has the likes of Ryan Tannehill, Mark Sanchez, Kevin Kolb and EJ Manuel, they will be the first team talked about when the AFC East is discussed. Continue reading →